Cheap Little Keychain
by rex1011amit
Summary: An Izuocha Roommates AU, because we need more of these two adorable kiddos. - A tender little moment between two teenagers on the verge of love...or maybe just embarrassment. Cross-posted on AO3


Their reactions to hearing they are to share a room are about what you would expect of them.

Izuku has a bit of an emotional roller coaster at first, on one hand he's going to be sharing a dorm room with a girl for a considerable length of time, and his head just floods with how quickly that could become awkward and all the ways he could embarrass himself. The more he thinks about it the more panicked he grows. The fact that he's never shared a room with anybody before this only compounds the matter.

On the other hand, it wasn't going to be any girl, but Uraraka, one of his best friends, someone who knows him and how…weird he could be, and someone he can actually talk to with some degree of ease, so he figures whatever awkwardness might arise could be smoothed out and laughed off rather easily, heck, it just might be fun! Though…he figures it would still be a little awkward, since while Uraraka is Uraraka, Uraraka is still a girl…a very pretty girl…with a radiant smile…who probably wears cute pajamas to bed…

All his thoughts of his potentially cute roommate screech to a grinding halt and whatever relief he might have started to feel quickly drains out of him when he remembers the sheer volume of All Might merchandise he brought with him, and he starts to panic all over again when he imagines what kind of reaction Uraraka would have to all of that.

As for Ochako her reaction is rather more…simple. She looks at Izuku from a slight distance, mulling over the fact that she's going to share a room with him for the foreseeable future, her face slowly growing red and her heart thumping loudly in her ears for a reason she's only just started to piece together, and then slowly placing her face in her hands and mutter, very quietly to herself, "Oh… oh no."

They reach their dorm room, hardly exchanging a word on the way, the both of them nervous for their own reasons; they open the door, look at each other…and laugh. Seeing that they were both equally uneasy about this broke some of the tension, and they set off to begin the long and arduous work that is unpacking.

Near the end of the process, Izuku turns to look at Ochako, "Uraraka-san," He says, his back to his last piece of unopened, and rather bulky, luggage, "We're friends right?"

Ochako turns to him, smiling brightly, "Of course we are Deku." She notices how stiffly he's standing, his back straight and his fists clenched at his sides, and she looks at him a bit questioningly, though still smiling "…Why do you ask?"

He looks to the floor, worrying his hands, "Well…I just wanted to ask that…um…well…" He goes on like that for a moment before sighing and turning to face his last bag, "Please don't judge me too harshly Uraraka-san." Finally he unzipped his bag, and slowly reached a hand inside.

Ochako is honestly mostly just confused at this; nothing she knows of Izuku gives her any sort of idea as to what he's expecting to be judged by her for, his use of the word harshly hardly helped her at all either, what was he going to show her that he'd need to visibly gather courage for?

As Izuku continues to gather up the aforementioned courage, Ochako remembers a slightly embarrassing episode that she had earlier in the year. She was walking around the school during lunch break when she heard snickering coming from further down the hallway she was walking in; as she got closer she saw Kaminari and Mineta chatting quietly amongst themselves, bragging about the size of their "stash" back home and how well they've hidden it, only to stop dead in their conversation when they noticed her not three feet away.

When she asked them what they were talking about, they grabbed her by the shoulders, dragged her to the dark corner of the school where they whispering, and got on their knees and begged her not to say a word to any of the teachers and to pretend she heard nothing. She promised, mostly to get them to stop crying as pathetically as they were, but when she asked them again about what they meant by "stash" they only avoided her gaze and muttered in unison, "It's…its private guy stuff y'know?"

That response answered absolutely nothing, of course, but she saw that she wouldn't get anything out of them anyway so she dropped it…deciding to ask the girls in class instead, knowing the guys in the class would either avoid her in much the same way, have no clue, or, in Bakugou's case, not give a enough of a damn to give her a serious answer.

Momo was just as clueless as she was, and her only contribution to the investigation was a guess that was a bit…naïve, "Maybe they were talking about their stash of…study equipment?"

Tooru wasn't much better, though this time because apparently she knew exactlywhat Ochako was talking about, but the only help she got was a giggle and a rather coy, "Why don't you try asking a few other people? ~"

She caught Tsuyu and Kyouka together, and their responses were the first real clue to the answer she was looking for. Kyouka looked rather unsettled, a blush staining her face before she muttered, "Kaminari", darkly under her breath and turning to stomp away while continuing to mutter, presumably to find the very same electricity user. Ochako doesn't want to remember what she did to him later that same week.

Tsuyu, on the other hand, while looking just as unsettled, simply cleared her throat and, with a much more subdued blush, croaked, "You probably don't want to know Ochako-chan."

Her last option was Mina, who finally put an end to her quandary with a cheeky grin, and blunt answer that proved Tsuyu's guess all too true, "Their 'stash'? Oh yeah! They were probably talking about porn."

Remembering that answer snapped Ochako straight back to reality just in time to see Izuku finally begin to take his hand out of the bag. A need to yell at him to keep whatever it is he wants to show her inside the bag and a morbid curiosity to see it (she could practically hear Mina giggle in her ear: what do you think his taste are like?) fill up her gut and redden her face as she watches, her conflicting emotions transfixing her gaze, as Izuku slowly reveals…

…An All Might action figure, dressed in his famous silver age custom and placed in his signature pose with its chest puffed out and its fists on its hips, and placed it on a table in front of him. Ochako instantly relaxes, letting out a shaky and breath laugh as her full face blush fades to a slight pink tinge on her cheeks, mostly out of a little bit of shame due to thinking Izuku would be the kind of guy to bring out something like that to a dorm, she should have guessed it would be something like this that he was scared to show her.

She still wasn't completely sure why he was this scared of showing her though; having something like that is nothing to be ashamed of…honestly she was starting to find this whole situation a bit cute…

She opens her mouth to say that Izuku shouldn't worry about it, but she's interrupted when Izuku pulls out another All Might figure, this one dressed in the yellow suit she saw the man wear a few times around school (she didn't know people made ones like that), and then another, and another, and another.

And soon the whole table and a sizable portion of the wall is covered in every kind of All Might merchandise she can imagine, from All Might figures to All Might posters to an All Might lamp, it appears that if there existed a kind of All Might memorabilia, then Izuku made it his mission to own it.

Looking at the frankly staggering amount of stuff that Izuku somehow managed to stuff into that bag and place in his half of the room, Ochako finally understood exactly why Izuku was so skittish about showing her all this.

Speaking of Izuku, he finally turned back to look at her, his face red with nervousness and worrying his hands again, "So…" He choked out at last, "…what do you think?"

She continues to observe his collection, letting herself soak in every detail and the sheer volume of admiration one person can have for another all at once amazes and doesn't surprise her in the least, considering who's standing before her, and a smile grows on her face with every object she sees, until finally she looks at Izuku with a smile stretched from ear to ear and cheeks tinged pink, and exclaims with every bit of affection she can muster, "Just what I expected out a geek's room!"

Izuku's face fills with embarrassment, falling to his hands and knees, surprising Ochako and breaking her out of her reverie as Izuku pitifully mutters in almost comical despair, "Right, of course, just as expected from a geek…"

"Wait nonono!" Ochako flails a bit, falling to her knees in front of Deku, worry etched on every inch of her face, "I meant that as a good thing! A good thing!"

Izuku lifts his face, a bit of the despair leaving his face, "…really?"

"Yeah really!" She springs herself up right, grabbing his hand to bring him along with her, and gestured to the collection, "I mean, look at all this!" She laughs and picks up the first figure and holds it up to him, "You have a lot of admiration for All Might! And you got all this stuff because of that!" She turns the figure in her hands for a moment, before gently setting back down where Izuku put it, "You look up to someone and what they represent, you want to be like them, and you want people to know it…"

Izuku looks at her, his heart swelling with something he can't quite put his finger on, a blush staining his face, "Uraraka-san…"

She looks up so their eyes meet, a soft smile on her face, "Being so proud of your admiration of someone…of what they stand for…putting all of it on display and trusting someone else with it…" She fidgets with the tips of her fingers, her nervousness rising and her face heating up for a reason she doesn't want to think about, instead she just smiles wider at him, "I think it's really cool, Deku."

The only thing Izuku can think to do is stare at her wide-eyed, opening and closing his mouth wordlessly, trying to convey something before he chuckles lightly and matches her smile with one of this own, "Thank you Uraraka-san."

They stand like that for a while, smiling brightly at each other, the world a hundred miles away…at least until they notice how close they are for the first time and taking a step back from each other, each of them letting out a nervous laugh and looking away, both of their faces glowing bright red.

Ochako looks at the collection again, and laughs again, trying to ease the tension, "You know…to be honest I'm actually kinda jealous."

Izuku looks up in surprise, "Really?" He follows her gaze to his collection and laughs a little despite himself, "Jealous? Of all this stuff?"

She laughs right back at him, giving his forearm a light punch, "Yeah! Of course I am!" She gestures at the merchandise, "I mean look at all of it! Having so much of this stuff is really cool!" She places a hand on one of the figures, her voice taking on a more wistful tone and the edges of her mouth tilting up, "I could never have this much stuff or even a little of it…" Her hand falls from the figure to hang at her side, her smile not quite reaching her eyes, "…It would have been too expensive."

Izuku's expression falls, remembering her parent's situation, "Uraraka-san…"

Ochako whirls to face him, her smile stretching further than it did a moment before, almost as if in response to his tone, "But hey! It wasn't all bad!" She clasps her fingers behind her back and looks at the celling, "Lots of kids in my elementary and middle schools brought some of their cooler stuff to share, so it's not like I never got the chance to at least play with that stuff for a while," She sweeps a hand in the direction of the collection that started this whole mess, "And now, I have a roomie with the best All Might collection ever!" She flashes the brightest smile he's seen her wear for a while, but it still doesn't quite reach her eyes, "So it's fine! Really! It's awesome!"

Izuku had a nagging feeling, but decided not to prod, so he just smiled, "Right." He looked at Ochako again, something still feeling off, "Uraraka-san," He started, Ochako looking at him oddly, "You sure you never had any hero stuff as a kid? Even something small?"

Ochako kept staring at him for a moment before averting her eyes to the floor and rubbing the back of her head, "…well, there was that one time…" She looked at him with a quiet little smile, "I was about…six I think? My folks and I went to a 100 yen store to do some last minute weekend shopping, when I saw this really cute All Might keychain…" She let out a sad chuckle, "It was just his face dangling from a little silver ring, ya know, cheap, but it looked cute to me so…I kinda begged my dad to buy it."

She looked down again, fidgeting with her fingers again, "And he did…on our way back home a thunderstorm started up, a bad one, pouring rain n'everything…" She sighed wistfully, "I was holding the keychain in my hand 'cause I was so excited to have it, but a thunder clap spooked me and I dropped it…rain carried it to a sewer drain and…" She shrugged her shoulders, "That was that." She let out a laugh that was just on the edge of bitter, "Really bummed me out, let me tell ya…"

Izuku had a feeling that 'bummed out' was a bit of an understatement.

"I didn't ask my folks for anything like that afterwards…" The smile completely slipped off her face, "Didn't want them to waste money on something we didn't need, y'know?"

Izuku felt a bit helpless, his friend slipped more and more into a somber tone as she told that story, until she finally just stared at the floor, her face sullen looking as if she's holding back tears. He was kicking himself for getting her to tell a story that obviously still hurt a bit to remember, and seeing her like that made him mentally scramble for a way to cheer her up, but try as he might he came up blank.

"Oh geez…" Ochako started laughing mirthlessly out of nowhere, kicking Izuku out of his mental ditch, "I just noticed my accent slipped out again, I hate it when that happens," She rubbed the back of her head, still not meeting Izuku's eyes, "Makes me sound stupid…"

"No it doesn't!"

Ochako looked up at the sudden exclamation, finally meeting Izuku's eyes, and saw something she hadn't seen before; he was angry, truly and honestly mad that she would think that way about herself, fists clenched and leaning over in her direction, the sheer shock knocked some life into her cheeks as she stares at him, "Huh?"

A second passed and Izuku's mind caught up with his words, causing him to blush and straighten his back, looking away with a sputter, "I mean…um…I don't think Uraraka-san's accent sounds stupid…" He found the most interesting spot on the wall to his right and kept his eyes there, blushing up to his ears, "I actually think it sounds kind of…" His voice lowered and lowered with every word until it was almost level with the floor, but somehow she still heard him say the last one, "…cute."

A thousand things popped and rattled around Ochako's chest, knocking against each other and causing an unearthly racket, they were causing so much noise in her chest that some of the blood that ought to be there fled up to her face to escape it. And now Ochako had a feeling that if she didn't end this conversationright now she would do something she would (probably) regret.

"Oh hey!" She exclaimed out of nowhere, startling Izuku out of his intense wall staring, "I still have stuff to unpack!" She pointed at the two puny pieces of luggage that were still unopened, "I better take care of that quick!" With that she hurried over to her side of the room, making a point of not looking at her friend for fear that he'd see how brightly red her face was glowing at this point.

Izuku watches as she rushes off to her bags with a blush of his own, rubbing his head in embarrassment, honestly, of all the ways he thought he could make living with a girl awkward, he didn't think calling the girl cute would be one of them.

Seeing her frantically fumble around with the zippers of her last two bags only made him feel worse, he pulled at his lower lip as he thought of some way to lessen the sudden tension in the air. He thought and thought until his head started to hurt, when suddenly something occurred to him, with a rush he went back to some of his luggage, looking for something.

Just as Uraraka was beginning to tire of fighting the bags, and right before she started to consider just getting Mina to melt the zippers off, she heard Deku calling her, "Uraraka-san!"

"Huh?"

"Catch!"

She turned around just in time to see him toss something her way, her eyes widened in surprise as she managed to just barely catch it with a yelp; she gave Izuku a reprimanding look, "Deku! A warning would be nice!" Deku in response only grinned at her, "What did you even give…me…" She opened her hand and saw a keychain, All Might's grinning face hanging off a simple silver ring, it looked a bit old, the ring had a few stains of rust on it, but looking at it conjured memories of a long gone rainy day with her parents.

"It's the one from your story right?"

She looked up at him, eyes astonished and mouth hanging open, "W-why…" Her eyes sank back down to stare at the keychain, her cheeks warm and tears pricking her eyes, "Why would you…"

Izuku's expression fell a little, "I've had that keychain for a long time, and since you've lost yours a long time ago, and I've got like…three more of those back home…" He worries his hands nervously, "I thought you should have it."

"D-Deku…you really don't have to-"

"I want to," He said with conviction, his eyes apologetic, "I made you sad by asking that question, so I wanted to make it up to you." He gave her a blindingly bright smile, "Consider it an apology gift."

Ochako looks at him, at his bright smile and lets the kindness of his words wash over her, looks down at her hand and the small, simple, cheap keychain laying in her palm, she holds it close to her heart as she takes a few small strides to stand in front of him, her eyes meeting his, "Thank you Deku."

Izuku laughs a little, his cheeks a little red, "It's no problem Ura-"

Before he could finish, and before she can stop herself, Ochako gets on her tiptoes and plants a short, soft kiss on his right cheek, her warm breathe lightly caressing his face, before she's back on the ground with a face splitting smile, "No, really, thank you so much Deku."

A beat of silence fills the room as what Ochako just did sinks in properly for both of them, their faces running the gamut of shock, disbelief, confusion, before finally settling on a shade of red that is probably more than a little impossible achieve.

The both of them stand there with their mouths hanging open before Ochako snaps her jaw closed, shacking Izuku awake.

"U-Uraraka-san-"

"OH!"

"Wh-"

"I JUST REMEMBERED!"

"What did you-"

"TSUYU ASKED ME TO HELP WITH SOMETHING!"

"Huh?-"

"I BETTER GET GOING."

"Hold on a-"

"SEE YOU LATER DEKU!"

"Uraraka-san wait-" Before he could fully get his bearings and finish his sentence, Ochako flees the room in record speed, holding her face in her hands and leaving him alone in the room.

As the sounds of her footsteps peter out, Izuku puts a hand to his cheek, the feeling of Ochako's small, soft lips forever imprinted in his mind; he mindlessly walks over to his bed and falls backwards onto it, his hand still on his cheek.

As he numbly looks up at the ceiling, a grin spreads across his cheeks unbidden, "Okay…" He mutters to himself, "Maybe sharing a room with a girl won't be so bad…" A moment later his mind catches up with his mouth again, and his face burns anew, and he covers it with a pillow hoping against hope the ground swallows him whole before his big mouth inevitably says something like that in front of someone else, especially Uraraka.

Downstairs in the common room, Ochako does much the same on a couch, wallowing in despair over her lack of self-control and wondering when her life became a teenage romantic comedy…all the while still holding on to that cheap All Might key-chain…


End file.
